Bagels have become enormously popular in recent years. They are prepared from plain yeast dough which is dropped briefly into boiling water and then baked. The product is a ring-shaped roll having a soft or hard surface and a tough chewy texture. There are many varieties of bagels including pumpernickel, raisin, whole wheat, sesame seed, and others too numerous to mention. Typically, the bagels are sliced in half before eating. They then are made into a sandwich, or are served with suitable spread such as jam or cream cheese.
Because of the differences in skin hardness and chewy texture of the bagel, as well as its irregular shape, it is not always an easy task to cut the bagel into two halves which are of equal size. A number of devices have been designed for slicing or cutting the bagel into halves, but they have all suffered from one or more deficiencies which have limited their commercial utility. These devices have been unduly complex, are difficult to clean, or are unsafe to use. Some of them utilize a powered rotary slicer, or movable parts. Others do only a marginal job of dividing the bagel into two approximately equal halves, particularly with respect to soft skin bagels which tend to tear into irregular pieces when cut.